1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to methods, computer-based systems and computer program products for managing service bills, and in particular managing bills issued from application service providers.
2. Discussion of the Background
An application service provider (ASP) is an entity, typically a company, that offers users remote access to software applications and related services that would otherwise have to be located on the user's local computer. For example, ASPs can provide searchable databases of legal, medical, financial, educational, scientific, or marketing documents to individuals and/or companies via the Internet. Alternatively, some companies may provide in-house type ASPs whereby shared software applications and services are located on a company computer accessible by the employees via a company network. Thus, as used herein, the term “ASP” has a broad meaning that includes a provider that allows a user to use an application not loaded on the user's local computer.
Today, there are a great number of ASPs providing various kinds of documents and services to a user. For example, one ASP may provide legal documents while another provides marketing, educational, scientific, financial, or medical documents. Moreover, one ASP may provide document storage and retrieval services only, while another ASP provides a service to print and deliver documents by way of the postal service or express mail. An example of a conventional network of ASPs connected to a user is shown in FIG. 1. As seen in FIG. 1, document ASPs 10, 20, 30, and 40 are connected to user 72 via the Internet 50. User 72 includes a personal computer (PC) 80, a printer 90, a local storage device 100 and a medium drive 110, and may be part of a home computer system, for example. In this example, user 72 independently connects to one of the ASPs 10-40 which provides the documents and services needed by the user 72. For example, the user 72 may connect to ASP 30 via the Internet 50 and download documents for viewing on the screen of the PC 80, printing with printer 90, or storing in the local storage device 100 and/or medium drive 110.
Where a user needs different kinds of documents or services, the user 72 may have to find and access many different ASPs. For example, where the user 72 wishes to retrieve a document and print and deliver the same document, the user 72 may have to retrieve the document from one ASP that provides only storage and retrieval services, and access a second ASP which provides a print and delivery service. In this regard, the user will receive many service bills that the user must account for and pay separately. This is a burden on the user, particularly if the user is a company having several employees that uses ASPs on a regular basis.